Ashworth And Jones Factory
Description and history
The former Ashworth and Jones Factory complex is located in far southwestern Worcester, near the town line with Leicester, on the south side of Main Street (Massachusetts Route 9). The complex consists of a series of buildings that roughly form a U shape. The oldest portion is a four-story brick building, in which windows are set in recessed corbelled wall panels, with pilaster-like piers separating the windows. The lowest floor has windows only facing the ravine below where Kettle Brook flows. There is a clock tower on one corner that is topped by a flared mansard roof. The attached additions to the main block are one and two stories in height, and continue the styling and materials used in the original block, despite a forty-year construction range.
The factory site used for industrial purposes beginning early in the 19th century, and was purchased by Thomas Ashworth and Edward Jones in 1861, where they manufactured shoddy fabric (using recycled materials). The buildings in which they first operated have not survived. The present building's main block was built in 1870. In the 1880s the business was taken over by E. D. Thayer, who built many of the additions, and manufactured woolens until his death in 1907. George Duffy acquired the facility in 1910, and again enlarged the premises.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in southwestern Worcester, Massachusetts
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Worcester County, Massachusetts
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- ^ "NRHP nomination for Ashworth and Jones Factory". Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved 2014-01-04.